Saturday, March 18, 2017

¿What gaffe will Trump give us come the Cinco de Mayo holiday?

The
word is getting out on how badly the Trumpites managed to botch the ceremonial
fluff this week related to Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day.

Which
is odd because, as the Washington Post reported, so many of the prominent
people allied with Donald J. Trump’s presidency are of Irish-American descent –
even though Trump himself is German/Scottish-American.

It's a wonder Trump didn't dig this sign out to post at White House

OF
COURSE, THEY’RE also the kind of people who go around screeching and screaming
at every opportunity that they’re “Real Americans!!!!” and none of that hyphenated
American talk that they want to believe is what’s wrong with our society these
days. Even though I suspect the real issue is many of them don’t know what they
are!

So
maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they really didn’t have
a clue as to how vacuous they were being on Thursday when officials from
Ireland were in Washington, D.C., for rituals long associated with the White
House to acknowledge the long-standing ties between the two nations and to show
just how far our nation has come from the days of “No Irish Need Apply.”

Then
again, it would be totally in character for the Trumpites to think it all
essential to snub other people. Perhaps they think it shows superiority and
strength. I think it merely shows boorishness.

Then
again, being a boor has been tied into the Trump persona for so long. It
probably is second nature.

·Vice
President Mike Pence managed to create rolled eyes with his initial greeting of
“Top of the Morning” to the Irish delegation.

·Trump
managed to recite an “Irish proverb” that no one in the Irish delegation recognized ("Always remember to forget the friends who proved untrue, but never forget to remember those who stood by you"), and it turns out may actually be a line written by a Nigerian poet -- a gaffe only The Donald is capable of making.

·House
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., made an attempt at a joke by pointing out all the
golf courses Trump has owned on his properties – apparently thinking that
Ireland and Scotland (where the game was created) are identical.

·But
Ryan topped himself when he tried offering up a toast, using a pre-poured glass
of Guinness that had gone flat. None of that luscious foam that hard-core
Guinness drinkers would insist is the mark of a real drink.

Tunisia officials showed Angela Merkel of Germany more respect than U.S.

About
the only way Trump could top that last gaffe would be, if the next time he
visits Chicago, he were to stop off for a hot dog and insist on no tomatoes or
pickle spears, but lots of ketchup.

This,
admittedly, is all trivial. But these ceremonial rituals usually are the things
that are so heavily researched in advance to ensure that nothing goes wrong. Ineptitude is putting things mildly.

PERSONALLY,
I THINK the Mike Pence gaffe is the worst, because this IS the man who would become
president, should the fantasies of many people that Trump become bored with the
presidency and resign were to actually come true!

Although
the fact that Trump followed up his Ireland gaffes of Thursday with a Germany snub
on Friday is purely pathetic.

For
Friday was the day that Chancellor Angela Markel was at the White House. She
got a private meeting with Trump, followed up with a public appearance by the
two during which Trump refused her offer of a handshake.

Reports also noted that Trump wouldn’t even look Markel in the eye during the time they
were together before the cameras – the moment in which the world’s eye was
literally on the two.

I find this sign outside an Austin, Texas restaurant to be amusing

IT
WAS POINTED out how Trump had been critical of Germany during his campaigning
last year, what with the way that nation has accepted refugees from Syria. A
move Trump has called “a catastrophic mistake” mainly because it makes his
attempts at creating xenophobic U.S. policies on travel and immigration look
all the more ridiculous by comparison.

You’d
think that even someone with a limited world view of Donald Trump (be honest,
those hotels he builds overseas are largely for Americans who don’t want to
have to interact with foreigners when they travel abroad) would be able to find
aspects of Ireland and Germany he could identify with.

TRUMP: Gaffes galore!

It
makes me dread what we’re likely to get when Trump is forced to acknowledge the
existence of May 5 and the Mexican holiday of that date. Maybe
he’ll head back to the Trump Tower in New York for one of the now-infamous “Taco
Bowls” they serve in their restaurant.

Which makes me think that for those who wish to disdain Mexico, the locals there and in Mexican-oriented communities in this country probably showed more respect for the Irish this week than our nation did.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.